Scots, Devolution, and Nationalism 1992 - 2016 Ashley Douglas This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Litt in the School of History, University of St Andrews, August 2016 Page 1! of 57! Candidate's declaration I, Ashley Douglas, hereby certify that this MLitt dissertation, which is 14,989 words (incl. footnotes) in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. Date ………………… Signature of candidate ……………………… Page 2! of 57! Abstract The demise in status of Scotland’s once institutional language of Scots went hand in hand with the loss of political power from Scotland in 1603 and 1707. The return of political power to Scotland in 1999 has not, however, correlated with a resurgence in the political status of Scots. Drawing upon manifestos; government publications; Scottish parliamentary debate and committee records; correspondence, and speeches, as well as primary survey and interview research, it is argued in this dissertation that this is illustrative of the ambivalent place of linguistic and cultural identity in the constitutional politics of modern Scotland, and not least in modern Scottish nationalism. Devolution did not, as intended, kill nationalism stone dead. Rather, the enduring and increasing nationalist threat since 1999, and particularly since 2011, means the nationalist associations of Scots have left it anathema for the Unionist parties, wary of the promotion of anything which may, by asserting national distinctiveness in the present, blow wind into the sails of political nationalism. Scots, however, has not been central to political nationalism in the modern period, focused more on institutional and political than cultural or ethnic identity. As such, though more sympathetic to Scots than the Unionist parties on the whole, the SNP since 2007 has gradually distanced itself from Scots, abandoned as peripheral to, and even incompatible with, its carefully constructed civic brand of nationalism. Around the 2014 referendum in particular, as the SNP redoubled its efforts to assert its civic credentials in order to secure a majority for independence, the promotion of an indigenous language could have no place. Thus too nationalist for the Unionists, but the ‘wrong’ type of nationalist for the Nationalists, Scots emerges as ‘naebody’s bairn’ in the political sphere, its future at the hands of Holyrood, devolved or independent, uncertain. Page 3! of 57! Tae ma lass, Eilidh, whaes expectations o me are as unbridillit anely as her love Page 4! of 57! Contents Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………………………..6 1. Introduction: Return of power, return of Scots?……………………………………………….7 2. The Unionist Parties…………………………………………………………………………….10 2.1. The Conservative and Unionist Party 2.1.1. Pre-devolution 2.1.2 Post-devolution to Present Day 2.2 The Labour Party 2.2.1 Pre-devolution 2.2.2 Post-devolution 2.2.2.1 In Government: 1999 - 2007 2.2.2.2 In Opposition: 2007 - 2016 3. The Scottish National Party…………………………………………………………………….29 3.1 Pre-devolution 3.2 Post-devolution 3.2.1 In Opposition: 1999 - 2007 3.2.2 In Government: 2007 - 2016 4. Conclusion: ‘Naebody’s Bairn?’……………………………………………………………….40 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………….42 Appendix: Overview of References to Gaelic and Scots in Manifestos, 1992 - 2016………….56 Page 5! of 57! Abbreviations CoE ECRML - Council of Europe European Charter for Regional and Minority Language CPG - Cross-Party Group EO - Equal Opportunities [Committee] M - [Scottish Parliament] Motion Number MWG - Ministerial Working Group PR - Procedures [Committee] S - Session [of Scottish Parliament] SCCC - Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum SLC - Scots Language Centre SNP - Scottish National Party SP OR - Scottish Parliament Official Record SPPP - Standards, Procedures, and Public Appointments [Committee] Page 6! of 57! 1. Introduction: Return of power, return of Scots? By the mid-fifteenth century, Scots - the northern variant of Anglo-Saxon, closely related to, but distinct from, its southern neighbour, English - had displaced Gaelic as the dominant language of the Scottish kingdom. Scots in this period was the language of kings and commoners alike: the humble speech of the most mundane to the most intimate aspects of everyday life, as well as the prestigious and official language of the institutions of the state, including both the Parliament and the Privy Council. It was also the medium through which Scotland communicated with Europe and the wider world, not least as the vehicle of a highly acclaimed literature.1 From the mid-sixteenth century, however, a series of historical developments led to Scots being replaced by English as the language of prestige and authority, resulting in its stigmatisation and neglect over the course of the following centuries, scorned by the Enlightenment intelligentsia and rejected by the educated classes. Paramount amongst these events were the dominance of English as the language of the Protestant Reformation, the removal of the Scottish king and court to London with the Union of Crowns in 1603, and, just over a century later, the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament and relocation of power to London with the Union of Parliaments in 1707.2 Though greatly reduced in prestige and usage from its apotheosis as the official language of the state, however, Scots has remained resilient both as the vehicle of a vibrant literary tradition, and as the mother tongue and everyday speech of a considerable proportion of the population: a living, national language. In the 2011 census, 1.9 million people (38% of the population) stated that they could either, speak, read, write or understand Scots. 1.5 million of those (30% of the population) stated that they could speak Scots, with this rising to almost half of the population in the council regions of Shetland (49%), Aberdeenshire (49%) and Moray (45%).3 If the loss of political independence, culminating in the parliamentary Union of 1707, went hand in hand with the demise in status of Scots, then the return of political power and status to Scotland with the re-establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999 held potential also for a 1 The Eneados of Gavin Douglas, for example, a translation into Scots verse of Virgil’s Aeneid (completed 1513) is ranked by scholarly consensus amongst the great works of European literature of the time. 2 McColl Millar, R., Language, Nation and Power: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 89-93 3 Notably, the figure of 1,541,693 obtained by the 2011 census accords almost exactly with the estimation of 1.5 million arrived at by the GROS following its 1996 survey, the consistency of which affirms the validity of each; There remains, at present, no standardised spoken or written Scots. Scots in this dissertation thus refers to the group of dialects which together constitute the West Germanic language of Scots as spoken and written across lowland Scotland and the northern isles today, retaining a common grammar and a large common vocabulary, but sometimes with striking idiosyncrasies. Scots is not to be confused with Scottish Standard English (SSE), essentially Standard English spoken with a Scottish accent; http://media.scotslanguage.com/library/document/SLC%20Analysis%20of%20Census %202011%20for%20Scots.pdf Page 7! of 57! political renaissance of its once national and institutional language. Moreover, the years since 1999 have also witnessed a rise in support for Scottish political nationalism as embodied by the Scottish National Party (SNP). First elected as a minority government in 2007, the SNP was re-elected with a majority in 2011, leading to the staging of a historic referendum on independence in 2014. Despite this referendum’s failure to secure a majority for independence, the force of political nationalism appears to continue unabated, with the SNP enjoying a historic victory in the Westminster General Election in 2015, and being re-elected as a minority government in the Holyrood elections in May of this year. Following the recent UK-wide vote to exit the EU complicated by a Scottish vote to remain, moreover, the prospect of Scottish independence once again positively dominates political discussion. Despite the opportunity presented by this political trajectory in Scotland over the past two decades, however, interest in the Scots language has been muted. It will be argued here that this is illustrative of the ambivalent place of linguistic and cultural identity in the constitutional politics of modern Scotland, not least in modern Scottish nationalism. Beginning in 1992 and ending in the present day, this dissertation examines the approaches towards Scots of the three main political parties pre- and post-devolution, analysing the changing status of Scots in political discourse. Particular attention is paid throughout to the relationship between Scots and nationalism, a topic which takes on particular significance during the years following 2007. The first chapter focuses on the approach towards Scots of the Conservative and Unionist Party.4 Re-elected as the party of the United Kingdom government for a fourth consecutive term in 1992, the Tories remained in power until the election of a Labour government in the UK General Election of 1997, which led to the staging of a Scottish devolution referendum the same year. This, of course, led in turn to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament in 1999, in which the Conservatives